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"This funny and poignant novel celebrates the power of writing to help young people make sense of their lives and unlock and confront their problems." - SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)

When MVP Kevin Boland gets the news that he has mono and won't be seeing a baseball field for a while, he suddenly finds himself scrawling a poem down the middle of a page in his journal. To get some help, he cops a poetry book from his dad's den - and before Kevin knows it, he's writing in verse about stuff like, Will his jock friends give up on him? What's the deal with girlfriends? Surprisingly enough, after his health improves, he keeps on writing, about the smart-talking Latina girl who thinks poets are cool, and even about his mother, whose death is a still-tender loss. Written in free verse with examples of several poetic forms slipped into the mix, including a sonnet, haiku, pastoral, and even a pantoum, this funny, poignant story by a master of dialogue is an English teacher's dream - sure to hook poetry lovers, baseball fanatics, mono recoverers, and everyone in between.

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-Like his earlier The Brimstone Journals (Candlewick, 2001), Koertge writes this novel in highly accessible free verse. Fourteen-year-old Kevin Boland is an MVP first baseman whose whole life revolves around baseball. Diagnosed with mono, he is forced to stay at home for months while he recuperates. Bored, Kevin borrows his father's book of poetry and starts writing his own. At first, he just has fun imitating haiku and sonnets, but he soon begins writing insightful verse, both funny and serious, in which he records his candid observations about life in junior high, romance, his dreams of baseball stardom, and his grief over the recent death of his mother. This funny and poignant novel celebrates the power of writing to help young people make sense of their lives and unlock and confront their problems. The cover will lead readers to believe that this is about baseball, but they will quickly realize there is much, much more to this finely crafted story.Edward Sullivan, White Pine School, TNCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Although I never thought of myself as a fan of poetry or novels in verse, I have to admit this genre is growing on me.When Kevin is forced to stay in bed for a month with mono, the prospect of missing out on baseballs games and hanging out with his friends does not excite him. But when he casually starts writing some words down on a page, and secretly borrows one of his writer father's poetry guides the exile starts to become more bearable. He slowly recovers, all the time writing about the death of his mother, past and present loves and his discovery of a whole new way of expressing himself.If I had to describe this book in three words it would be 'short and sweet'. It's fun and cheerful (although I have to admit I didn't "get" the title until I was finished reading it).

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup is a funny, breezy, cute book. I don't think it relies as much on the themes of baseball, or even poetry, as it does on the theme of young love. Occasionally this theme becomes inappropriate as he writes poems about making out with girls in the bamboo forest and, in a sick metaphor, reaching Home Base.

Nevertheless, Shakespeare Bats Cleanup will cast a sort of spell over you. Well worth a read.

14 year old Kevin Boland's life, recently devastated by the death of his mother, grinds to a complete halt with his contracting mono. Friends, school, and his starting spot on the centerpiece-of-his-life HS baseball team are all on hold. Confined to bed and home, his dad, concerned over his son's physical and mental health, suggests he keep a sort of therapeutic diary. The literary trick here is that Kevin's efforts not only be heartfelt and entertaining, but that they be written as a beginning writer-poet might create them. That author Koertge pulls off this feat with aplomb is remarkable. A love interest in the second half is a solid plus. You're really rooting for this kid. An overly strict father's cell call on a first date is hilarious. Lots of humor here and amongst all the teen and team anguish is an astute baseball novel. Mr. Koertge knows the game, lovingly so. SBC is wonderfully creative and astute. Don't miss it. Beware the white owl.

This book follows the life of a kid at the age of fourteen. He is diagnosed with Mono and is but in bed for the remainder of the school year. He finds a poetry book in his Fathers collection and starts testing his own skills out. He tries Pastoral, using couplets, a sestina, and blank verse to name a few. Koertge formed his character through different kinds of poetry and I believe does and amazing job. After the first few poems you really start seeing this character come to life. I would recommend this book to any reader.

I just ate this book up. It made me laugh so hard at parts and really just captured my interest right off the bat and continued to keep me interested. Novels in verse are starting to grow in children's literature and I am so happy that it keeps growing. Also, this is one of the rare books in verse that teaches you a bit about poetry. Kevin finds a book about different types of poetry and starts to use them in his journal and he lets you know what he's experimenting with when he is.

The premise borders on the precious, and the marketing is awfully close to "eat your broccoli!", but you know what? - it works. The protagonist feels like a real kid and the development of the story, while still implausible, is just realistic and engaging enough to hold a reader's interest.

So, you have baseball, poetry, interest in girls and a narrator with some honest appeal. It's sort of like Peck or Paulson, mellow with a little shaggy dog appeal. The kind of book a kid could enjoy discovering on a shelf.

"It feels weird smuggling something about poetry up to my room like it's the new Penthouse. / But I don't want Dad to know what I'm doing yet. Even though I'm not doing anything. Not really. / I'm just going to fool around a little, see what's what poetry-wise." - from "Inquiring Minds Want to Know," by Kevin Boland

Up until now, Kevin Boland's life has been pretty simple, fairly straight-forward. He goes to school, plays baseball. He's even kissed a couple of girls. Except now, he can't. He can't do any of those things - no school, no baseball, no kissing girls. Fourteen, and stuck in bed with mono. It's the baseball he misses the most, but there are other things, too. When his Dad, who is a writer, gives Kevin a blank journal, it's just so he can write a few things down if he gets bored. You know, something to take his mind off the fact that he's stuck in bed. And at first it seems kind of crazy, but Kevin decides he wants to experiment a little bit with poetry. After all, it's just in the journal - it's not like anyone will ever know.

Through couplets and free-verse, sestinas and a pantoum, Kevin uses poetry to reflect on his friendships, his love of baseball, his relationships with girls, and the still sharp grief he feels after the death of his mother. At first, he's most concerned with how rotten it is to have mono and how much he misses baseball but, as the days pass, Kevin finds that poetry allows him to think and feel in a way that nothing else can.

I love novels in verse - the way they use words economically, the way a poem can sometimes say so much more about a person or a situation than prose can. I especially love novels in verse when they are as thoughtfully written as this one by Ron Koertge.Read more ›